In order to fulfill the MFA Thesis Concert requirement, I propose a suite of dance works that incorporate…
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M.F.A. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2012.

In order to fulfill the MFA Thesis Concert requirement, I propose a suite of dance works that incorporate mixed media to be presented in the Fall Footholds Concert in Fall of 2012. The total choreographic length will be a maximum of 25 minutes depending on the progression of the work while in construction. This concert will be performed in the Earl Ernst Lab Theatre.
The title of my thesis work is Quickly Standing Still. The proposed choreography, video, and set design presented will be created specifically for the concert. Additionally, I will re-stage my choreography of a 2008 solo, Every You, Every Me. The entire body of the choreography will incorporate mixed media projection using still frames and video recording. Media will be projected on a variety of set pieces consisting of moveable fabric screens, the upstage cyc, and fabric panels stretched across the stage. I also intend to design and construct the costumes using new fabric as well as refurbished costumes and clothing. Pre-recorded music and recorded text and sounds will provide the sound score.
I will videotape rehearsals to provide feedback, support, and rehearsal aides for the dancers, and myself. Furthermore, the recordings will be made available to the thesis committee to view of its discretion. These videos will be posted on Facebook in a specific group for accessibility. At the close of the concert the rehearsal videos, images, and final performance shots will be compiled into a DVD to show the process in the collaboration of mixed media and dance on the performance stage and to support practice as research.

► This thesis enquires how a rethinking of sight as the primary sense for experiencing dance performance can instigate new choreographies that embody the interplay between…
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▼ This thesis enquires how a rethinking of sight as the primary sense for experiencing dance performance can instigate new choreographies that embody the interplay between seen and unseen, described and not described, inside and outside, subject and object. By ‘unseen’ I mean invisible to the eye but potentially available to other senses or imaginative capacities. Choreography is a methodological and critical lens through which to explore relationships between description, translation and sensory perception in a range of performance engagements that invite multi-sensory attention. The research is launched with implications arising from a consideration of audiodescription: the supposed neutrality of the speaker, the potential for cultural mismatches or power tensions in translation and the challenge of making spoken language more fully represent the body in performance. The thesis argues that rethinking ideas of description, from the beginning of a devising process, can lead to the production of choreographic work that does not privilege vision. The research for this thesis has involved choreographic practice combined with writing. In this writing, the on-going narrative of my choreographic studio work has been deliberately interwoven with analysis and contextualisation of this practice. The different elements enacted in the studio and at the writing desk have continually interacted, back and forth, identifying in the process, appropriate objectives for successive phases. For example, the reflections stimulated at each phase of concurrent theoretical research and studio work have deepened my choreographic enquiries, while also identifying other points requiring further exploration. This exploration has been carried out during further practical choreographic experiments in the studio, triggering still further theoretical analysis, and so on. In this way, the dancer writing becomes, and interacts with, the writer dancing. Sensory and kinaesthetic knowledge can build a more integrated and immersive sensual experience of dance as something to be not just observed but also engaged in. The intention is that insights from the research will inform strategies for original choreography expressed in performance.

Smith, S. (2015). Dancing in the dark : described dances and unseen choreographies. (Doctoral Dissertation). University of the Arts London. Retrieved from http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/13358/ ; https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.752911

Smith S. Dancing in the dark : described dances and unseen choreographies. [Doctoral Dissertation]. University of the Arts London; 2015. Available from: http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/13358/ ; https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.752911

University of Cape Town

3.
Sponheuer, Silke.
Music made visible in time and space : concepts of simultaneity in tone-eurythmy choreography.

► Eurythmy is an art of movement that expresses music and speech. This dissertation explores eurythmy's musical field, called tone-eurythmy, in its multifaceted appearances, background and…
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▼ Eurythmy is an art of movement that expresses music and speech. This dissertation explores eurythmy's musical field, called tone-eurythmy, in its multifaceted appearances, background and within its philosophical context. Tone-eurythmy, carried out by performers moving in space and time, makes music visible. It transforms music into a new movement-art form, that of audible-visible music, by expressing musical components as well as the artistic intentions within a composition and those held by the performing artists. The dissertation examines how musical concepts are seen by eurythmists to integrate ideas of wholeness and to understand music as both audible and inaudible. It draws on studies and findings from music psychology to show distinct effects of musical elements on the human being, and to indicate the similarities between those and the qualitative expressions of music through tone-eurythmy.
Advisors/Committee Members: Spiegel, Mugsy (advisor).

Sponheuer, S. (2009). Music made visible in time and space : concepts of simultaneity in tone-eurythmy choreography. (Thesis). University of Cape Town. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8251

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Sponheuer, Silke. “Music made visible in time and space : concepts of simultaneity in tone-eurythmy choreography.” 2009. Thesis, University of Cape Town. Accessed March 21, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8251.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Sponheuer S. Music made visible in time and space : concepts of simultaneity in tone-eurythmy choreography. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Cape Town; 2009. [cited 2019 Mar 21].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8251.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

Sponheuer S. Music made visible in time and space : concepts of simultaneity in tone-eurythmy choreography. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town; 2009. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8251

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

University of the Arts London

4.
Smith, Sue.
Dancing in the Dark: described dances and unseen choreographies.

► This thesis enquires how a rethinking of sight as the primary sense for experiencing dance performance can instigate new choreographies that embody the interplay between…
(more)

▼ This thesis enquires how a rethinking of sight as the primary sense for experiencing dance performance can instigate new choreographies that embody the interplay between seen and unseen, described and not described, inside and outside, subject and object. By ‘unseen’ I mean invisible to the eye but potentially available to other senses or imaginative capacities. Choreography is a methodological and critical lens through which to explore relationships between description, translation and sensory perception in a range of performance engagements that invite multi-sensory attention.
The research is launched with implications arising from a consideration of audiodescription: the supposed neutrality of the speaker, the potential for cultural mismatches or power tensions in translation and the challenge of making spoken language more fully represent the body in performance. The thesis argues that rethinking ideas of description, from the beginning of a devising process, can lead to the production of choreographic work that does not privilege vision.
The research for this thesis has involved choreographic practice combined with writing. In this writing, the on-going narrative of my choreographic studio work has been deliberately interwoven with analysis and contextualisation of this practice. The different elements enacted in the studio and at the writing desk have continually interacted, back and forth, identifying in the process, appropriate objectives for successive phases. For example, the reflections stimulated at each phase of concurrent theoretical research and studio work have deepened my choreographic enquiries, while also identifying other points requiring further exploration. This exploration has been carried out during further practical choreographic experiments in the studio, triggering still further theoretical analysis, and so on. In this way, the dancer writing becomes, and interacts with, the writer dancing.
Sensory and kinaesthetic knowledge can build a more integrated and immersive sensual experience of dance as something to be not just observed but also engaged in. The intention is that insights from the research will inform strategies for original choreography expressed in performance.

► Dance is an art form that is traditionally taught through physical demonstration. Choreography is forgotten if it is not practised repetitively, as dancers must rely…
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▼ Dance is an art form that is traditionally taught through physical demonstration. Choreography is forgotten if it is not practised repetitively, as dancers must rely on physical memory without the help of a written score to remind them of the steps. So many great works have been lost over time as choreographers have neglected to preserve their routines in written form. To prevent this, multiple notation systems have been created but none of them have ever become as popular or standardised as music notation. Many of these systems involve symbols that can only be understood by those who have studied the system in depth and are therefore inaccessible to the everyday dancer or choreographer.
The origins of dance notation in Western culture come from fifteenth-century Italy. Dance masters who served at the many courts of the country recognised the need for dance to be intellectually understood as well as performed. The popularity of manuals as a way to discuss art, music, philosophy and many other subjects that formed the education of the elite during the Renaissance led to the writing of dance manuals. Domenico da Piacenza (c.1400-1476) was the first to do this, and his treatise De arte saltandi et choreas ducendi (c.1455) is an eloquently written model text for all dance manuals that followed.
Domenico does not notate his dances with symbols, but rather uses word descriptions to explain his choreography. His manual includes sixteen chapters which discuss the qualities one should aspire to achieve when dancing, the nature of the different misure (speeds) of the music, and how one should dance to each of these. This is followed by descriptions of eighteen of Domenico’s balli accompanied with his self-composed music, and five bassadanze.
By examining closely three of Domenico’s balli, and attempting to reconstruct them, this thesis engages with issues regarding the preservation of dance and how effective the use of the written word is for doing so. Although there are several flaws in Domenico’s system, the idea of using the written word to notate dance still seems the most practical to date. The method created by Domenico in fifteenth-century Italy for his court dances is still the most common way for modern dance forms such as ballet and ballroom to be notated, transmitted to others and learned by dancers today.
Advisors/Committee Members: Bernardi, Claudia.

► This research paper investigates the work of British choreographer and dancer Dan Canham. The focus of the investigation will be localised on the theoretical notion…
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▼ This research paper investigates the work of British choreographer and dancer Dan Canham. The focus of the investigation will be localised on the theoretical notion of ‘place’, in relation to Canham’s work and performance theory. It will also utilise geographical and philosophical discourse in order to widen the research, creating a cross-disciplinary approach to the subject in question. It will assert that through the presentation of place in an artistic setting, an experiential understanding of place is processed and created by the receiver. This thesis will also suggest several tools that feature in Dan Canham’s work in order to argue this point. The most potent of these is choreo-mapping, which suggests a hybrid of geographical and performative methodology in order to create a new spatial understanding within the presentation of place on stage.
Advisors/Committee Members: Erven, Eugene van.

Ainsworth, O. C. L. (2014). ‘The Echoes of a Place’: An investigation into the notion of place in the work of Dan Canham. (Masters Thesis). Universiteit Utrecht. Retrieved from http://dspace.library.uu.nl:8080/handle/1874/298976

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Ainsworth, O C L. “‘The Echoes of a Place’: An investigation into the notion of place in the work of Dan Canham.” 2014. Masters Thesis, Universiteit Utrecht. Accessed March 21, 2019.
http://dspace.library.uu.nl:8080/handle/1874/298976.

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Ainsworth, O C L. “‘The Echoes of a Place’: An investigation into the notion of place in the work of Dan Canham.” 2014. Web. 21 Mar 2019.

Vancouver:

Ainsworth OCL. ‘The Echoes of a Place’: An investigation into the notion of place in the work of Dan Canham. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. Universiteit Utrecht; 2014. [cited 2019 Mar 21].
Available from: http://dspace.library.uu.nl:8080/handle/1874/298976.

Council of Science Editors:

Ainsworth OCL. ‘The Echoes of a Place’: An investigation into the notion of place in the work of Dan Canham. [Masters Thesis]. Universiteit Utrecht; 2014. Available from: http://dspace.library.uu.nl:8080/handle/1874/298976

► This project was designed to create a dance performance which focused on research based choreography while portraying the historical, cultural and emotional significance of color.…
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▼ This project was designed to create a dance performance which focused on research based choreography while portraying the historical, cultural and emotional significance of color. Various activities were used in order to help dancers gain a greater sense of self confidence in dance and performance. The author hoped to prove that by educating a student dancer holistically including the mental, physical, and emotional aspects of dance, the end product or dance performance would be significantly enhanced. This project aimed to show that by engaging a student in the creative process through research, creative activities, and peer collaboration, a more emotionally committed performance would be created.
Research for this project was conducted in several fields. First, literature pertaining to current educational trends and alternative practices was studied and reviewed. Educational theorists such as Dewey and Arnstine provided a base from which further conclusions on education could be formed. Next, the author researched methods of dance pedagogy and philosophies from respected dance professionals. Finally, research was conducted to explore the connotations of color from various historical and cultural perspectives.
The creative process used when producing a project such as ???Colors??? was extremely important and directly related to the quality of the end product. The research based approach used to create choreography led to a diverse body of works which challenged the dancers both physically and mentally. Activities designed to promote focus and self confidence were just as essential as activities designed to gain higher extensions and greater balance. This holistic approach to training resulted in a significantly enhanced end performance.
Advisors/Committee Members: Olson, Crystal.

► A practice-led, studio based research project investigating the creative process of ‘tracing’ as a choreographic methodology, Locating the trace examines the notion of ‘trace’ in…
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▼ A practice-led, studio based research project investigating the creative process of ‘tracing’ as a choreographic methodology, Locating the trace examines the notion of ‘trace’ in choreographic practice. By drawing on theoretical and philosophical notions of ephemera, disappearance, repetition and temporality, and by questioning what is trace in relation to choreographic practice, the project develops a conceptual and practical approach to choreography as a ‘traced’ act. Informed by theoretical propositions that challenge the assumption that choreography is ever fixed, or repeatable, the research investigates the implications of approaching choreography as a permeable and unstable form.
Within the context of this thesis the term trace can best be defined as an experiential attribute located in the body, which may include physical and psychical sensations, and as source material, can be tracked and shaped through a choreographic process. In shaping this material through processes of generation and regeneration, the research examines how choreography can retain ‘traces’ of movement action/and or experience in the final form.
The research is undertaken through four phases of the choreographic process: locating experiential sensations in the dancing body; the creation of movement material; the development of choreography through processes of re-composition; and the dancer’s performance of the choreography. Through these four phases of the research, Locating the trace analyses the choreographic and performance practice of ‘tracing’ in motion.
The outcome of the research, a solo performance work, The Very Still, created with and performed by dancer Phoebe Robinson, draws together the research experimentation in six sections of choreography. At the intersection between the choreographic form (traces), and performance of the choreography (tracing), The Very Still invites a detailed exploration of the research themes, where minute and subtle traces within the performing body are closely observed. Locating the trace, considers the creative possibility of tracing as the means to evoking that which remains traced and never fully present, and as a creative process offering alternate representations in choreographic practice.

Parker, S. J. (2010). Locating the trace: an exploration of tracing and the choreographic process. (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Melbourne. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11343/36190

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Parker, Sandra Joy. “Locating the trace: an exploration of tracing and the choreographic process.” 2010. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Melbourne. Accessed March 21, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/11343/36190.

► ‘Dancing the threshold: Liminal space and subjectivity in practice and performance’, is a practice-led research project undertaken between 2011-2013 at the Victorian College of the…
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▼ ‘Dancing the threshold: Liminal space and subjectivity in practice and performance’, is a practice-led research project undertaken between 2011-2013 at the Victorian College of the Arts as a Master of Animateuring by research. There are two components of the research: a performance outcome and an exegesis. ‘The Blue Hour’ (30min) was performed in December 2011 and documented in July 2012, and is available for perusal via video format. It is accompanied by this exegesis of 15,000 words.
The practice-led inquiry seeks to illuminate the relationship between vivid imagining and the dancing body and to determine how liminal spaces can act as sites for the emergence of character states whereby fixed notions of identity are transcended. The inquiry incorporates both a personal account of practice through dancing and writing and a critical reflection on the relationship of the research material to the fields of anthropology, psychology and psychoanalysis. Rather than critically analysing the content of these writings I instead reflect on the connection they have to the studio practice and how they may extend the depth of meaning that emerges from it.

► This paper is an argument that stunt and choreography trends in Thai and Indonesian martial arts films produced from 2003 to 2017 represent a conscious…
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▼ This paper is an argument that stunt and choreography trends in Thai and Indonesian martial arts films produced from 2003 to 2017 represent a conscious effort on the part of the filmmakers to produce fight scenes which are continuously chasing jaw dropping spectacle, with less and less regard to the human cost associated. Specifically, I examine 2 of the most successful films from each country, Ong-bak and The Protector from Thailand and Merantau and The Raid: Redemption from Indonesia, and trace the trends and production methods of each film. The global success of each is seen as a justification for the relative lack of safety protocols in the design of each action set piece. The films creators and performers freely admit to chasing the chosen aesthetic in an attempt to have their films stand out for thrill-seeking audiences. This expectation of spectacle translates to increasingly dangerous choreography, stunts, and real physical contact between main actors and stunt performers. This paper attempts to question the necessity of these methods. As a contrast, I also examine the United States stunt industry and successful U.S. action/martial arts films produced during the same time frame. Specifically, I examine the Bourne and John Wick franchises, in hopes of determining the necessity of production methods used by Thai and Indonesian film industries.
Advisors/Committee Members: Tyner, Kathleen R. (advisor), Garrison, Andrew (committee member).

-5891-2000. (2018). No stunt doubles! No CGI! No wires! : a comparative study of Thai, Indonesian, and American martial arts cinema. (Thesis). University of Texas – Austin. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2152/64137

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Author name may be incomplete
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Author name may be incomplete
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

-5891-2000. No stunt doubles! No CGI! No wires! : a comparative study of Thai, Indonesian, and American martial arts cinema. [Thesis]. University of Texas – Austin; 2018. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/2152/64137

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Author name may be incomplete
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

► How can attention to lived experience through somatic practice deepen the choreographic and performative process? Somatic practice is a first-person approach to sensing and moving…
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▼ How can attention to lived experience through somatic practice deepen the choreographic and performative process? Somatic practice is a first-person approach to sensing and moving that can help provide a balance to the objectified view of the body that is common in Western culture. Through the process of choreographing Please Feel Free for the 2007 Graduate Dance Concert at the University of Utah, I attempted to bring a somatic point of view to my choreographic process and the performance of my dancers. This thesis document explores somatic theory, the methods through which I applied somatic practice to the choreographic and performative processes, and the outcomes of my research.

► Laughter is a physiological and psychological response when people perceivesomething as funny. In my choreographic thesis work “float away,” I explored howlaughter can create intimacy…
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▼ Laughter is a physiological and psychological response when people perceivesomething as funny. In my choreographic thesis work “float away,” I explored howlaughter can create intimacy between audience, performer, and dance artist. Physicalhumor derived from dance brings the artist, dancers, and audience together in a sharedexperience that is conveyed through the human body. I believe that the audiences’experience of the emotive expressivity of the performers’ physical body has the potentialto deeply connect them to one another. Through my own dance experiences, I believe thathumor and the act of laughter can allow audience members to emotionally open up,creating more receptivity to choreographic themes and creative work. This thesis willconsider how humor explores and can be elicited through relationships of the performerson stage, as well as the relationship between performers and audience. As a non-nativespeaker, jester, and dance artist, I choreographed the piece “float away,” which served asan exploration of humor in modern dance, and questioned whether or not it is an effectivetool for connecting the audience to the performers on stage. “float away” waschoreographed for my thesis and shown at the University of Utah 2014 Fall GraduateConcert.

Sun, W. (2015). The communicative power of laughter in modern dance. (Masters Thesis). University of Utah. Retrieved from http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/etd3/id/4045/rec/2422

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Sun, Wenting. “The communicative power of laughter in modern dance.” 2015. Masters Thesis, University of Utah. Accessed March 21, 2019.
http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/etd3/id/4045/rec/2422.

Sun W. The communicative power of laughter in modern dance. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. University of Utah; 2015. [cited 2019 Mar 21].
Available from: http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/etd3/id/4045/rec/2422.

Council of Science Editors:

Sun W. The communicative power of laughter in modern dance. [Masters Thesis]. University of Utah; 2015. Available from: http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/etd3/id/4045/rec/2422

This thesis explores potential expressive possibilities in dance performance and choreography, with Irish step dance as its point of departure. The core data for…
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peer-reviewed

This thesis explores potential expressive possibilities in dance performance and choreography, with
Irish step dance as its point of departure. The core data for this exploration derives from two newly
choreographed ensemble works, Noċtú and Rite of Spring.
The opening chapter introduces the work’s structure and provides a broad overview of its key approaches
and paradigms. Chapter Two situates the research theoretically and methodologically within the
framework of arts practice research. It introduces key research methods including but not limited to
autoethnography and narrative inquiry as an approach to interacting with, and the documentation of
practice. It also explores choreographic work-making methods employed in the studio-based strand
of the investigation. Chapter Three provides a contextualization of Irish dance in terms of its history,
stylistic features and its ongoing evolution with a particular focus on the impact of spectacle shows
such as Riverdance. Philosophical, psychological and ethnochoreological contexts are also introduced,
drawing on phenomenology, Lacanian psychoanalysis, performance studies and a number of practice
theories.
Chapters Four and Five introduce the two major works upon which this research is based. The works are
presented and reflected upon, employing the researcher/practitioner’s voice, the voices of the dancers
who embodied the work as well as the voices of the critics who viewed it. This thesis suggests an alternative
approach to professional contemporary Irish dance ensemble work, highlighting the opportunities
and challenges associated with navigating this relatively uncharted landscape for this particular idiom.
The investigation produced evidence that despite a general expectation that Irish dance as a form tends
to favour displays of virtuosity, which are meaning-loaded for both the Irish step dancer as well as the
observer, there exists untapped expression. The research asserts that Irish step dance is an evolving
tradition, and maintains that the aesthetic lens with which the choreographer engages with the dance
landscape, and art in general, is a function of phenomenological and psychological factors.
Additionally the investigation highlighted several dimensions that appeared to characterise the nature
of the choreographed and performed experience, including subjective, relational, and transformational
dimensions. Key also to the creative process and its expressive possibilities was the element of chance.
The research builds on Irish dance scholarship, as well as dance studies in general. It contributes to
the field of ethnochoreology, giving insights into how Irish step dancers behave in a creative environment
that might be at variance with their expectation. Furthermore, it makes a case for practice-based
research as a rich and rewarding approach to work-making as it straddles the disciplines of theory
and practice opening up novel creative approaches and opportunities. The thesis argues that pushing
boundaries within…

► This thesis explores authenticity, especially within the context of modern dance. I examine the roles that deception, perfectionism, and judgment might play in the choreographic…
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▼ This thesis explores authenticity, especially within the context of modern dance. I examine the roles that deception, perfectionism, and judgment might play in the choreographic and performance processes and briefly discuss the relationship between art and truth. I also relate my struggles and insights as I work to identify my own authentic selfhood through the creation and performance of two dances. The research shows that self-honesty, self-understanding and self-acceptance can greatly affect a dancer's approach to choreography and performance. It also reveals that claiming an authentic self is not a one-time event, but a constant negotiation, which carries the potential to help one realize a fuller, more integrated life.

Ward, K. B. (2008). Search for an authentic self in the choreographic and performance process. (Masters Thesis). University of Utah. Retrieved from http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/etd2/id/2074/rec/1013

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Ward, Kristine Butler. “Search for an authentic self in the choreographic and performance process.” 2008. Masters Thesis, University of Utah. Accessed March 21, 2019.
http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/etd2/id/2074/rec/1013.

Ward KB. Search for an authentic self in the choreographic and performance process. [Masters Thesis]. University of Utah; 2008. Available from: http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/etd2/id/2074/rec/1013

Victoria University of Wellington

15.
Hughes, Eustacia Lynn Jocea.
The Choreomusical Page-to-Stage Approach: Visual Representations of Musical Modernism Through the Works of Igor Stravinsky and George Balanchine.

► The musical developments of the Modernist period provided a new understanding and approach to composition. These developments are also seen in ballet, branching into several…
(more)

▼ The musical developments of the Modernist period provided a new understanding and approach to composition. These developments are also seen in ballet, branching into several styles, with many choreographers providing their unique take to staging musical works. In this study, the modernist choreomusical relationship is examined with respect to the possibility of a page-to-stage approach in dance. This thesis examines how this approach is manifested in the complex relationships between the composer, and the choreographer. Drawing on nine examples of modernist era ballets categorised in to three styles (classical, neoclassical, and contemporary ballets), discussion of historical context, analysis of the musical and choreographic relationship, and other ideas surrounding adapting music for a visual medium are explored.
This thesis also examines changing attitudes to music/dance relationships. Two lines of enquiry are followed, the first assesses, through the example of Stravinsky, Balanchine, and several other contemporaries, whether a page-to-stage approach exists for ballet. A supplementary enquiry explores how such an approach is manifested within different methods of choreography. This study finds that there are difficulties in applying the choreomusical page-to-stage approach to analysing changing attitudes to music/dance relationships. At another level, this study points to the benefit of incorporating the concept of diegesis in analysing the changing attitudes to music/dance relationships.
Advisors/Committee Members: Robb, Hamish.

Hughes, E. L. J. (2017). The Choreomusical Page-to-Stage Approach: Visual Representations of Musical Modernism Through the Works of Igor Stravinsky and George Balanchine. (Masters Thesis). Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10063/6579

Hughes ELJ. The Choreomusical Page-to-Stage Approach: Visual Representations of Musical Modernism Through the Works of Igor Stravinsky and George Balanchine. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2017. [cited 2019 Mar 21].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/6579.

Council of Science Editors:

Hughes ELJ. The Choreomusical Page-to-Stage Approach: Visual Representations of Musical Modernism Through the Works of Igor Stravinsky and George Balanchine. [Masters Thesis]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2017. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/6579

Milburn, G. R. L. (2012). Being between : empathy and presence in the performance of 'open' improvisational dance. (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Chichester. Retrieved from http://eprints.chi.ac.uk/950/ ; http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.577956

Milburn GRL. Being between : empathy and presence in the performance of 'open' improvisational dance. [Doctoral Dissertation]. University of Chichester; 2012. Available from: http://eprints.chi.ac.uk/950/ ; http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.577956

時を超えて Beyond Time is a dance piece inspired by Japanese paintings. The piece was performed at the Earl…
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M.F.A. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2012.

時を超えて Beyond Time is a dance piece inspired by Japanese paintings. The piece was performed at the Earl Ernst Lab Theatre at the University of Hawaiʻi on February 22-26, 2012. A recorded document of this dance concert will be provided.
This document includes the original thesis proposal that was submitted in December 2011. The proposal explains my initial plans to fulfill the choreographic requirements to complete an MFA in dance. The following evaluation and analysis of my creative process includes an explanation of the many changes that took place regarding my thesis process. These changes include music, costume and choreography. The appendices include the concert program, advertisement poster and newspaper review.

In order to fulfill the thesis requirements for an MFA degree in dance, I will choreograph three new…
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M.F.A. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2012.

In order to fulfill the thesis requirements for an MFA degree in dance, I will choreograph three new works for the Fall Footholds concert from October 10-14, 2012. This concert will be performed in the Earl Ernst Lab Theatre. By choreographing these three new works, utilizing three innovative examples of fine art as inspiration, I hope to challenge and expand my choreographic abilities and broaden my skills and knowledge as a dance artist.
The connection between visual art and movement is the inspiration for my proposed works. I have always found visual art intriguing and believe that there is an existing relationship between it and dance. Therefore, my goal is to produce movement that reflects and replicates the pieces of artwork that I have chosen.
The three artworks are from a collection of different sea glass sculptures from artist, Jonathan Fuller. All three of my dances will incorporate still frame photographs projected on the cyclorama. Each artwork has inspired me to create movement; hence, the movement will reflect the sea glass and the overall structure of the sculptures. The total length of my choreographic works will be approximately 15 minutes.
Though each sculpture contains similarities, such as the use of sea glass and wood and the texture and gradients of color, there are vast differences between each work. For the purpose of clarity, I will include a written description of these differences for each artwork and use them in creating movement. I believe that these descriptions aid me in choreographing the essence of each sculpture.
Since I will be using images of Jonathan Fuller's sculptures within my work, copyright permission will be needed. I recently contacted Fuller via email and received his approval.
To keep my cast and committee informed, I have created a private Facebook group titled, "Elyse's MFA Thesis." This group will be used as a way for me to communicate with some of my dancers who will be off island during the summer. I will use this group page to post rehearsal updates, any information and rehearsal footage. Attached is the projected timetable for my thesis and a detailed description of the three pieces that I intend to choreograph.

► This PhD thesis examines the way in which spectatorial relationship with certain dance works is reconfigured through emerging practices for documenting, analysing and ‘scoring’ dance,…
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▼ This PhD thesis examines the way in which spectatorial relationship with certain dance works is reconfigured through emerging practices for documenting, analysing and ‘scoring’ dance, paying particular attention to the role of digital technology. I examine three central case studies, developed between 2009 and 2013, which are outcomes of major research projects, these are; Synchronous Objects for One Flat Thing, reproduced (Forsythe and OSU 2009), Using the Sky (Hay and Motion Bank 2013) and A Choreographer’s Score: Fase, Rosas danst Rosas, Elena’s Aria, Bartók (De Keersmaeker and Cvejić 2012). These ‘scores’ fall under the title of ‘choreographic objects’, a term which, following Leach, deLahunta and Whatley (2008) I use to refer to collaboratively produced, artist-­‐led objects that utilise technology in various ways, to explore and disseminate choreographic processes. Focussing on western contemporary theatre dance practices and drawing on discourses from Dance Studies, Performance Studies, Philosophical Aesthetics and Digital Theory, I consider how ‘choreographic objects’ pose philosophical questions regarding the ways in which audiences access, interpret, appreciate and value works, examining the evolving role of the score in issues of identity and ontology. I also consider the score-­‐like nature of these objects, drawing comparisons with codified movement notations, such as Labanotation, developed by Hungarian dance theorist Rudolf von Laban (1879 – 1958). The case studies pose many queries, however the central focus of this research is on three key questions; what are ‘choreographic objects’? How do they reconfigure spectatorial engagement with specific dance works? And, how does this reconfiguration encourage a rethinking of their ontological statuses? The case studies demonstrate an increased interest in the articulation, examination and dissemination of choreographic process. In recent years many artists, based primarily in Europe and the USA, such as Siobhan Davies (1950 -­‐ ), Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (1960 -­‐ ), William Forsythe (1949 -­‐ ), Emio Greco (1965 -­‐ ), Steve Paxton (1939 -­‐ ); have teamed up with researchers and technologists to develop digital, or partially digital objects which examine and articulate their choreographic processes. deLahunta (2013b) suggests that together these artists give rise to a ‘community of practice’. This is a notion formulated by Etienne Wenger (1998) to describe groups of people who are engaged in collective learning, including, for example, “a band of artists seeking new forms of expression” (Wenger 2006: 1). The shared interest in cultivating new ways to express choreographic process generates a form of community between these artists. The objects generated through these investigations are labelled ‘scores’, ‘archives’ and ‘installations’, however, each one problematises their categorical label, thus generating the rubric of ‘choreographic objects’; an emerging class of object which both crosses and defies existing modes of description. The circulation of…

► This practice-based research project explores how a choreographic view of a physically informed drawing practice can serve to articulate and generate new understandings of material…
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▼ This practice-based research project explores how a choreographic view of a physically informed drawing practice can serve to articulate and generate new understandings of material relations between moving bodies and static, receptor surfaces. Using task-based studies and other systematic structures of working that activate the horizontal plane of the floor, the research reveals how different configurations of relations between bodies, surfaces, and materials such as charcoal and paper, can mediate and extend a reciprocal touch between body and surface. Rather than on the production of finished artwork, emphasis is placed on processual activity and the working conditions from which material and visual residues emerge as evidential remains of reciprocal touch.
The research is organised around the key terms intersect, surface, and body that operate as working concepts and facilitate a way of organising the observations and findings of the practical investigation into distinct areas of enquiry while recognising that these areas increasingly overlap and complicate one another. The thesis is extended through a critical engagement with ideas of non-human agency and materiality developed in the work of Harman (2013), Bennet (2010) and Barad (2013) and a reconsideration of horizontality through Steinberg’s notion of the ‘flatbed picture plane’ (1972) which informs a choreographic view of drawing in relation to orientation and surface distribution. The thesis is further contextualised through a consideration of the choreographic conditions presenting in performance works of choreographers Trisha Brown, La Ribot and Janine Antoni that extend across choreography and visual art contexts.
The thesis aims to contribute to recent discourse in the field of choreography concerned with how a co-presence of human and non-human forces can be incorporated into choreographic processes and how drawing can present as choreographic knowledge through a consideration of material agency in approaches to performance-making.

► The purpose of my creative research was to analyze my choreographic process and answer the research question: how will implementing somatic principles impact my choreographic…
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▼ The purpose of my creative research was to analyze my
choreographic process and answer the research question: how will
implementing somatic principles impact my choreographic process? In
determining the impact I analyzed the use of choreographic
approaches that bring proprioceptive awareness to interdisciplinary
somatic themes of bodily systems, sensing, connectivity, initiation
and sequencing. These somatic themes were utilized in movement
invention and exploration as well as the structuring and
performance of my choreography. Additionally, the research involved
clarifying my role as a choreographer and my relationship to the
dancers in my work. My creative research occurred in three
choreographic phases and resulted in the production of B.O.D.I.E.S
performed in three consecutive sections titled Discovery,
Exploration, and Identity November 5-7, 2010. B.O.D.I.E.S
demonstrates how somatics will lead to greater movement
possibilities and dynamic range to explore in the craft of dance
making.

► This practice-led research project probes how to sustain the methodology of a well-developed solo practice as performer/maker, whilst moving toward choreographic development on other bodies.…
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▼ This practice-led research project probes how to sustain the methodology of a well-developed solo practice as performer/maker, whilst moving toward choreographic development on other bodies.
The research project, ‘Toward an understanding between corporeality, improvisation and inhabited space’ is the culmination of two years of research toward my Master of Choreography at the Victorian College of the Arts and MCM, University of Melbourne.
Grounded in an investigative improvisation workshop, the research explores the process of creation for new dance work by allowing corporeality, real-time attention to space and our living experience to influence movement choices, thereby highlighting a personal performance idiosyncrasy. Outcomes and insight of the research have allowed for interest to emerge around the inter-connected relationships and influence of corporeality, improvisation, choreography and intuitive processes.
Through both a reflexive first person account of values and practices and also engagement with theoretical discourse from performance theory, art theory and philosophy, this writing explores the above key interests in relation to the making of the performance piece connected with the project, The Space Between.
This research was undertaken through three key phases, namely: ten months of solo improvisation exploration, a five-month improvisation workshop and performance season with three other dancer/makers, and an 8 month writing process providing insight and understanding into the previous two phases.

► During a ten week period at the University of Oregon I created a sociopolitically based dance work, The Big Red Button. I researched theories about…
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▼ During a ten week period at the University of Oregon I created a sociopolitically based dance work, The Big Red Button. I researched theories about creativity. I researched a selection of master choreographers in order to integrate their methods of creation with my own. Finally, I created a dance piece with students from the University of Oregon which was shared with the public in a live performance. In this document I discuss this exploration into my creative process in dance with the intention of understanding more about it, expending upon what I already posses as a choreographer, and attempting to find out if the creative process can be enriched, resulting in new methods, new products, and new perspectives on creating a dance work.
Advisors/Committee Members: Chatfield, Steven (advisor).

► This practice-led research enquires into how ideologies of community as commonality have informed the dominant rhetoric in the Community Dance sector since the 1970s, and…
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▼ This practice-led research enquires into how ideologies of community as commonality have informed the dominant rhetoric in the Community Dance sector since the 1970s, and formed the conditions of possibility for Cross-generational Dance, a reciprocal relationship between discourse and practice that has arguably been overlooked in the historiography of Community Dance. Framed by Michel Foucault’s (1972) concept of the episteme – an umbrella mode of knowing that permeates historical taxonomies – Community Dance history is linked here with experimental choreographic processes during the 1960s and 1970s, and Relational Art of the 1990s. Such relationships suggest a more critical, politically-orientated genealogy. Cross-generational Dance is discussed through a reflexive approach to the writing which reveals how philosophies of community are divided into those associated with the idea of commonality – either through shared characteristics or common goals – and those that advocate a break with these imperatives, here examined through the philosophies of Adriana Cavarero, and Jean-Luc Nancy.
Given its perceived agenda to bring people of distinct ages together into a harmonious totality, Cross-generational Dance provides a particular opportunity to discuss community, examined here through case-studies of key choreographers at the time of writing – Rosemary Lee, and Cecilia Macfarlane. The discussion of age is made explicit through an analysis of models of difference, and introduces how an ethical encounter with others can avoid the totalising impulse of community in subsuming these differences. The methodology of ‘relational choreography’ underpins the phenomenological emphasis on process and relationships in choreography over more conventional conceptions of product and form in dance and supports the hypothesis that community can be experienced as ‘being in relation through a phenomenology of uniqueness’. This conception does not rely on polarising the positions of the individual and the community, or self and other, young and old, but rather generates an experience of uniqueness, wherein differences remain unresolved, shared amongst ‘others plural’ (Nancy, 2000). This thesis therefore reconsiders what community means in the context of dance practice.

► This was a practice-based project which extended the possibilities for dance improvisation in performance. The project engaged questions about how live performance is constituted, about…
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▼ This was a practice-based project which extended the possibilities for dance improvisation in performance. The project engaged questions about how live performance is constituted, about what the roles of the dancer and audience might entail, and about how a community of common experience can develop through a responsive exchange between its participants.
Advisors/Committee Members: Gardner Sally.

This research explored the use of 3Dstereoscopic illusions in live dance performance. It examined the practical and philosophical implications of using stereoscopic projection technologies and 3D animated objects as dynamic, interactive components of a choreographic practice.
Advisors/Committee Members: D'Cruz, Glenn.

► This practice-based project is an investigation of life drawing practice through the frameworks of choreography and theatre to examine the relationship of the constructed nude…
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▼ This practice-based project is an investigation of life drawing practice through the frameworks of choreography and theatre to examine the relationship of the constructed nude body to movement and space. The nude is generated through an embodied engagement in life drawing practice and the application of choreographic practice to the process of generating the artwork. From this, the nude is utilised as an alternative site to explore the potential instigation and organisation of action to reside.Using self-reflective observation, embodied feedback and the choreographic methods of William Forsythe and Xavier Le Roy, I consider the nude as a fiction based on a ‘language of the body’. In this thesis, I examine the processes in which the nude is interpreted and derived from the participation and performance of life-drawing practice. Further to this, choreographic processes are examined to consider the nude as a material object to be choreographed, highlighted by the presentation of the nude within a theatrical framework. Derived from the human form, the nude is a fiction in which its construction can be viewed as a choreographic process, and in experimenting with that process alternative ways of generating the nude can be examined. This project produces contemporary ‘alternative nudes’ by aligning choreography with the fundamental phenomenological dimension of drawing. This approach has demonstrated a collision between the inanimate and static with the kinetic and sensual. A brief history of the nude and ‘alternative nudes’ reveal that its construction and reception can be seen as a mirror of cultural and social ideology and beliefs. The artwork is a theatrical installation that combines drawing techniques, installation of scrims, motorised movement and computer coding. In examining the process of creating the fictional nude bodies choreographic techniques are evidenced and choreographic thinking can provide a means to account for how movement can open up the nude to new and more nuanced meaning. Subsequently, the understanding of movement and the body through choreographic thought can be aligned with the performance and theorisation of life drawing practice.
Advisors/Committee Members: Cvoro, Uros, Art, Faculty of Art & Design, UNSW, Davies, Alex, Media Arts, Faculty of Art & Design, UNSW.

East Y. Twisted floating bodies: Choreographing the nude. [Masters Thesis]. University of New South Wales; 2016. Available from: http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/57163 ; https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:42742/SOURCE02?view=true

► What is the relationship between music and dance? Specifically, when choreographers interpret music with movement, what in the music are they responding to? When faced…
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▼ What is the relationship between music and dance? Specifically, when choreographers interpret music with movement, what in the music are they responding to? When faced with ambiguities in the music, such as conflicting meters, how do choreographers choose which paths to pursue? With the aim of addressing these questions, fourteen professional choreographers from Europe, Brazil, and the United States were recruited to participate in a survey. This included a) general questions about how they use music when choreographing, and b) specific questions concerning four short musical tracks taken from the second movement of Maurice Ravels String Quartet in F Major. Regarding the general questions, responses revealed that choreographers have very different approaches to incorporating music in their working methods. Nevertheless, regarding the specific questions, answers showed striking consistency in how individual musical passages would be interpreted. In a second, exploratory study, aimed at achieving ecological validity, five student choreographers (undergraduate and graduate students at the University of New Mexico) were asked to create and perform a solo dance to the complete second movement of Ravel's String Quartet. These performances were videotaped, and each video was analyzed (somewhat following Hodgins, 1992) for rhythmic, dynamic, textural, structural, and articulative qualities. The music was then analyzed along similar dimensions, and the results were compared. Musically ambiguous passages (e.g. those with conflicting meters) were of special interest, as they demonstrate the variety of interpretations that choreographers have, and presumably that listeners do too.
Advisors/Committee Members: Bashwiner, David, Hinterbichler, Karl, Pyle, Pamela, Repar, Patrice, Bashwiner, David.